Time to learn how to troll

[shrimpman steve]

Went out today with the mortgageman. We figured we would get a late start, let the wind drop out and fish the outgoing with the west wind. Great plan, not. After hobbling together enough clams for the afternoon we set off. Missed the good morning clam bite as we could only find one short bass courtesy of Eric.

We tried trolling for a little while as the radio was abuzz with peeps killin em on 25"s. I have two on the boat but just couldn't get it right. Speed, depth, action. Whatever, we couldn't elicit a strike. Sal made it sound easy. I guess I just need to keep trying, so I left the boat down there and will try again tomorrow. :D

Gonna go early and fish the incoming with the light east wind. Think I'll try more line out and greater speed.

[makosnax]

I despise trolling but I'm gonna start out trolling tomorrow while I scout for fish. Biggest problem I have is stretch 25s hitting bottom in anything less than 30' of water, trolling less than 2 mph. I'm gonna try some mag raps that run 9-12' trolling in 20'. I've even tried heavier mono to keep the stretches from diving too deep, I must be missing something?

[ReelNauti]

Trolling is CHEATING

[Suckafish]

Steve stretch 25 different colors 5 miles an hour 75 yards back run two it will happen just make sure you clean weeds off if running shallow

[shrimpman steve]

Five miles an hour and 225 feet.

Thanks. Sounds fast and like a lot of line, but you caught and I didnt, soooooo I'll give it a shot

Thanks

[Capt Sal]

Steve stretch 25 different colors 5 miles an hour 75 yards back run two it will happen just make sure you clean weeds off if running shallow

150' and 3kts. The slower the deeper. If you come up a ridge and you don't want to hit bottom go faster. Stretch 18 also work as do the thirties. They make stretch eights also.I use yellow braid because it is easy to mark with black. I try different distances and the least amount of line needed is want I want. I use my rod riggers also because I feel the rod tip close to the water gives the plug better action. As far as trolling goes pulling stretches is the easiest compared to umbrella rigs. Pulling bunker spoons is next.

[Andreas Toy]

Get colored braided line, we use power pro
Depthhunter. Every color is 25 feet.
We troll to look for marks-fish, when we find them
We anchor. Also troll when wind is against tide or
Slack water.

[John D.]

It's been awhile since I trolled regularly for stripers but followed the old timers rule:

If you think you are going as slow as you possibly can, you are going too fast. This is especially true early in the season when the fish are more lethargic. Don't have too much experience with the stretch 25s but can't imagine it's too much different than the 30s. Key is also making sure they are tracking correctly at the right depth. Ie, just a few feet off the bottom.

Enjoy it now bc when the blues come in you won't be trolling them anymore ;)

[Blackfish Bobby]

Hey Steve....give me a shout.... We too had trouble with bait and waited for the delivery at Pete's. We left them biting on Clams at 6pm :mad: had to get home. The Obsession drove right by us but I don't think Jerry recognized me. I was waving him over. Gotta get phone numbers. Give me a shout if you want. In two hours we had two nice keeps and 7 shorts. Boy was it gorgeous out there when we were leaving.

[Gerry Zagorski]

Bobby - was that you on the True World ? We caught a few fish there but most were further back in the bay.

Good advise from Sal our speed was 3.0 knots or so and you want to see the pole tips pulsing rapidly.

We were trolling stretch 25s but spoke to others who were trolling shad unbrellas that were doing well too. I might like to break out the old long single red tubes and give them a shot too.

[shrimpman steve]

All great stuff. Thanks for sharing

[ruger1v]

Ok her it goes. This technique has been killer for me. I never run my plugs at the same distance. I run 2 to 3 lines. For example I will just use these numbers for exxplanation. I will run the first plug 200 feet. The second one 250 feet. 60 to 70 percent come on the trailing plug. My thoughts. The first plug brings the fish in and the ones that don't get there in time have another passing them in the face. Some times I run a third at 150. This has worked very well for me. Especially with some lethargic fish. This method has out produced friends pullin the same plugs behind them as I many times. All my friends have switched to this off set system and swear by it. Also I use a good flourocarbon leader. About 5 to 6 feet. What depth plug I use depends on the depth. Typically I run 4 to 6 mph. I switch speed up til I find out what speed the fish I'm marking at hitting.

[SandsharkPolar]

Shrimpy, I used a Daiwa linecounter reel for the first time Saturday and that makes it real easy to know how much line is out. We had umbrella rigs from 68 to 80 ft back and everytime we hook a fish we dropped it back exactly to where we got the hit. No guessing.

[Blackfish Bobby]

Gerry
We were on the 21 foot Trophy..... Two guys waving at you as you cam into that fleet.

[Skolmann]

To paraphrase an old Geico ad, "Even a Caveman can troll".

[makosnax]

I too was always under the impression that slow is better but after reading on here that guys are trolling 3 to 4 knots, I gave it a try. I varied between 2.5 and 3.5, the hits came at the higher speed today.